That title just sounds a lot slicker than “Unusual Retirement Account Funding Techniques.”

Last year in April I wrote Debt Free, my ode to faithfully filling up my Vanguard Traditional IRA to its $5,500 brim. At that time I was about $2,500 short of maxing out my IRA. My solution was to fund my Target REDcard (since discontinued by American Express) by charging the $2.5k to my Capital One VentureOne card, withdrawing the balance from REDcard to my checking account, and finally transferring the funds to my IRA account.

Have you heard? I plan on retiring early. Somewhere in my mid-thirties I will own every hour of every day that I live. Imagine yourself in those shoes. Or maybe they would be slippers. In any case you’re free to wear them all day. It’s up to you, and they represent the ability to answer only to yourself.

A Health Savings Account (HSA) incentivizes saving for medical expenses and is made available as a feature of high deductible health plans. With my employer, I have the choice of either a high deductible health plan (HDHP) or a normal health plan. Opting for a HDHP makes sense at this point in my life because I am young and have great health. A HDHP is also one-fourth the cost compared to the normal health plan and still allows annual medical checkups and coverage of the common medical disaster scenarios (albeit at a higher deductible).